Back Online!

Wondering where I've been? Without any warning, we had a lightning strike our neighbor's transformer Friday afternoon. Katie and I both jumped out of our skin. You know how the hair on your body sticks straight up? Well, it happened to me. Katie was sitting in the recliner with her eyes all big. She asked me, "did you hear that?" Our power went off for a brief moment, but it didn't take long before I realized the lightning affected our electronics. I wasn't getting a signal on our television, the satellite was not cooperating and before it was over, the satellite was making really weird noises. Ugh! I tried connecting to the internet, to check on the weather. Nope, nothing was happening there. At first, I thought maybe the router was acting up because of the lightning. I turned off the router and restarted everything. Still nothing! At this point, I was getting very frustrated. The best thing for us to do is turn off everything and play dolls and trains. lol. While Katie was taking her nap, I resorted to reading my Sunday School lesson. I began asking God, if this is what he wanted me to do instead of watching "Days of Our Lives"? If this is true, more than likely it is, well I got that message LOUD and clear. lol!

I called Doug and told him what happened. He sounded so disgusted. About as disgusted as I was because we went through this very thing a couple of months ago. If you remember, lightning hit our tree. This natural disaster caused the tree to fall into our power lines, thus killing our transformer. All this action caused the following deaths: our microwave, radio, Katie's television, DVD player and VCR. As Doug did the final analysis this past weekend on all the damage, our television, satellite, router, and modem got hit. Our internet was hooked up to the television, in order for us to do online updates. He believes the lightning ran through the phone line and that's why so many things got hit. Ugh! We are limiting our hook ups to the phone lines, from now on. We've always had bad luck with cloud to ground lightning and our phone lines. In the past 13 years of living in this house, I can't count on one hand of all the phones we've had to replace because of lightning. You know what? I'd rather replace phones than our television any day.

The new satellite receiver and modem were delivered today. Doug found a pretty good deal on the router $69 through OfficeMax. If you need a router, check out OfficeMax. Maybe they'll still have their deal going on. Poor Doug got me hooked up tonight. It's 9:50 p.m. and he's still working on the satellite. The satellite as a whole wasn't completely destroyed by the lightning just the HDMI was affected. He took the television to a repair place in Decatur yesterday. We haven't heard anything about it yet. Hopefully, they'll be able to fix it. Right now, we're watching TV from Katie's 22" television. lol. Do you realize how hard it is to go from a 42" to 22" television?

Anniversary
I spoke to Maryann the other day, talking about Mom and Dad's Anniversary. They will be celebrating their 53rd Anniversary this Thursday. We've decided to get together at the nursing home this week for their anniversary. I hope Mom will like the surprise celebration. I figure, she's a little down. I have only heard through the grapevine, Dad told Mom about not being able to come home so quickly. If it's true, I don't blame Dad for keeping her in the home until the very last minute.

Apparently, if Dad brings Mom home earlier than what Medicare allows her full allowable days, she might have to start all over with Medicare and loose her room in the process. Dad wants to feel confident that he can take care of Mom full time, before the Nursing Home starts talking about her coming home. The nursing home administration are the ones that gave Mom all this hope of coming home in the first place. They told her, there is nothing left for her to learn in rehab and she is capable of living a good life as is at home. The only thing they didn't tell her is Medicare will pay up to the full 100 days, if there's a chance she can't take care of herself. I believe, she's been in the home for about 60 days out of the 100. If she leaves early (for good), she will be giving up her room. We (family) and Mom really like this nursing home and we don't want to give it up, if by chance Dad can't take care of her on his own. Now there was a time that they said, Mom could leave the nursing home for a day. One of us (family) could pick her up for the day and drop her off later that night. I don't know if they are still talking about that or not. When we visited Mom Sunday, I was afraid to ask her anything for fear that it might cause her to cry. I know she was so hoping to come home and now, she has to stay. According to Maryann, Dad told her that Mom might be able to come home the end of August. If that's the case, it won't be so bad. I'm sure in Mom's eyes, it will probably feel like forever. So, maybe this party will perk her up a little bit.

I have to tell you real quick. Sunday, I saw Mom for the first time walk quite a long distance with her walker from her scooter into the bathroom. Yay Mom! She told me that they've pretty much dismissed her from rehab, but she goes anyway once a day. I told her to keep up the good work because it will pay off in the end.

Prayer Request
A young lady, Natalie C., passed away this past week. She went to elementary school with my niece and nephew. Her family members are church members and good friends to my sisters, Maryann and June. Natalie C. was 19 years old and attended U of A. I'm not too sure about the details, but that Natalie was found dead in room (I believe). Doctors say, she died of a blood clot. That's all I can really tell you. My Natalie K. is taking it pretty bad, according to her mom. I remember Maryann talking about the two Natalies playing basketball together. I just ask you to please remember this family as they are grieving for Natalie C.

Bookstore
Katie still had a couple of birthday checks to cash, so I thought it would be a good idea for us to stop off at the bookstore. We haven't been to BAM in a long time and I know how Katie loves the bookstore. At first, when I mentioned it to her, she thought we were going to the Library. She was all confused because she knew that the Library wasn't this specific way. When we finally walked inside the store, she automatically knew where we were. Here we go! She went straight for her section. We always look at the sale aisle first and of course, there was a "Miss Spider and Sunny Patch Friends" book that Katie doesn't have. It was on sale for $1.97. After scheming through it, she tucked in right under her arm and on to the next. I was still looking through the sale books and she kept saying, "Mom, let's go over here. Com'mon Mom! My books are over here." Spoken like a little teenager. At least I'm getting a first hand glimpse as to what's to come. I made the mistake of telling her whatever books you want, go right ahead. She took it literally. She had a hand full of books within 10 minutes. She sat down on one of the chairs, did a once through to set in the decision and she became confident that was the books she wanted. I have to say, I was impressed with her choice and decision making abilities. lol. All the books were paperback, which makes it cheaper between $3.99 - $5.99 each. She made sure that they were educational, " Mickey Mouse Clubhouse", which teaches you comprehension, numbers, letters, shapes, colors, and problem solving. The other two books, besides "Miss Spider", was Angelina Ballerina. These books teaches problem solving, manners, and socializing skills as well. I was also impressed because she didn't pick out books that she already has at home. She is so bad about that. Aunt Sandy, I think you would be pleased with her choices as well. For the rest of the afternoon, all she wanted to do was look at her new books. We had to read at least 4 of them by tonight and one more before bedtime. lol! She loves books, I just hope she will keep that enthusiasm in years to come.

Traffic Light
Sandy mentioned to me a while back to start teaching Katie some words and to start off slow, like traffic lights and spell the names on signs like "STOP". Well, I've been starting off slow like Sandy suggested and Katie has caught on pretty quick. I don't want to overwhelm her, so I'm taking it very slow. Right now, we are sticking to traffic lights and the "Stop" signs. I guess we've been doing this off and on for about 3 -4 weeks. I'll ask her questions like "do you see the light?" She'll answer, "uh, huh". I'll ask her, "what color is it?" She'll hesitate, "it's green!" I'll ask, "what does that mean?" She'll respond, "green means go!" We'll do the same thing with red and she gets it right most of the time. We are a little confused as to what the yellow light means exactly. I guess it's because I bring it to her attention too late. In turn, she only sees the red signal. Now, as we are driving around town, she tells me what color the light is and what it means. It's become a game of ours. We are still working on the "STOP" sign. I guess it's because we really don't see that many on the main road, but when we do see them and I remember, I do point it out to her. Her train set comes with two "STOP" signs, so I practice with her that way. She'll put the sign right in the middle of the train track and as I'm pushing Thomas the Train, she tells me to STOP. So at least, we have that grasped. We can work on the spelling later. Right? lol.

Potty Training Update
I've been afraid to breathe a word of Katie's potty success until now. I've mentioned it here and there, but I think we are in the winning lead. This past week, if she had an accident it might have been one a day. Yesterday, she did so good and keeping dry pull ups. She's been getting better in telling me that she has to go potty. Saturday, I was on the phone with Doug when I heard Katie hollering for me. I thought she was in her bedroom. Come to find out, she was in the bathroom on the potty. She had just pee-peed and wanted me to know. I was proud of her. She got her stool up to the potty, put her Dora Doughnut on, pulled off her shorts and pull ups and went to the potty. BIG GIRL! I couldn't praise her enough. In fact, I gave her two Hershey's Kisses for such accomplishment. We are still working on the pooh-poohing in the potty. If I suspect her have a BM. I'll ask her about it. She'll answer me, "I need to hide". She has had some false reports. She'll tell me that I need to change her pull up because she pooped. I make her go get the pull up and wipes and bring them back to me. I've got to where I'll check her out first because she'll be dry as a bone. I think she passes gas and thinks that she pooped in her pull up. I promised her today I would put panties on her, if she kept her pull ups dry. Unfortnately, she had an accident this morning and had to change her. No panties today! We'll be home tomorrow, so many she'll be able to wear panties after all.

She told Doug and I Sunday afternoon that she wanted to go to the Disney Store. We don't know where this came from, but I thought I would use it. I told her that she had to keep going to the potty, stop the fits with me and Daddy and use her manners more that I would take her to the Disney Store. Well this morning, she used the potty. About 5 minutes later, she remembered the promise I made her. Her eyes all huge, she said," Mom, I'm a good girl. I went to the potty." I agreed with her and praised her. Then she adds, "Mom, I get to go to Disney Store." You talk about changing expression within a blink of an eye. She went from happy to sad within a half a second. She scuffed off into the Living Room. As we were getting ready to go to town, she just knew we were going to the Disney Store. Excited again, she asked if we were going to the Disney Store today. "Nope. We had to go to Walmart." I answered. Most of the day, she's been reminding me about our promise. I guess because I have yet to keep the last promise, but it really isn't my fault. I tried getting ahold of Air It Out, but they just wouldn't answer the phone. I think they are only open during the weekends. I hope not because Katie, more than likely, won't be going. I know a lot of teenagers like to hang out there and this is coming from my own nieces and nephews. They went right after Katie's birthday party last weekend and they are between the ages of 14-20. Why, Katie would be smooshed.

I'm sorry this was such a long post. As you can understand, I had a lot of catching up to do.